Prostitution in Early Modern Europe

1. Prostitution in Early Modern Europe Heather Hoyt Ashley Turpin Katharine Lorden Kyle Anderson Cristi Casey

2. Prostitution & Religion A theory about prostitution is that it thrived because it was politically useful to the ruling class. Unemployment, underemployment, and inadequate wages pushed many women into prostitution. Prostitution itself was an important part of the city�s moral system. According to Fransisco Farfan, a sixteenth-century cleric of Spain, recognized the upside-down morality of prostitution. He recognized the weakness of flesh and believed the only way to deal with it was to divert human behavior away from moral sins. Prostitution could support the moral order, but only if it were closely regulated (by city Fathers)

3. Prostitution & Religion Confining prostitutes in licensed brothels prevented some property damage, and it also protected the interests of those who owned the property used as the city brothels. Historian Fransisco Rodriguez Marin concluded that the property used as city brothels was owned by city officials and religious corporations, including the Cathedral council. City fathers who owned brothels did argue that these brothels benefited the entire community because they provided a livelihood for otherwise destitute women. To most city fathers, prostitution was not only thinkable, it was practical.

4. Prostitution & Religion Prostitution strengthened moral attitudes that supported the city�s hierarchy of authority, and it permitted the city oligarchy to demonstrate its authority to define and confine evil. To city fathers in Seville, prostitutes were lost women, however, historical evidence presents a picture of prostitutes who were an integral part of their community. * �Lost Women� in Early Modern Seville: The politics of Prostitution. By Mary Elizabeth Perry http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.csusm.edu/view/00463663/sp040006/04x0155y/0?searchUrl=http%3a//www.jstor.org/search/BasicResults%3fhp%3d25%26si%3d1%26Query%3dCrime%2band%2bsociety%2bin%2bearly%2bmodern%2bSeville&frame=noframe¤tResult=00463663%2bsp040006%2b04x0155y%2b0%2cFFFF1A&userID=90250156@csusm.edu/01cc99334121b1d10e051ddc3e&dpi=3&config=jstor

5. Economic Need of Prostitution Although prostitution may be associated with the idea of easy money and fast women, further examination developed a serious reason for prostitution: economic need. The economic distress in the Seventeenth century, that hit female artisans particular in Seville, was the cause of many social changes. 21 Laws that prohibited clothing of silk and brocade, limited gold and silver embroidery, and fixed a permissible number of domestic servants compounded the problems of inflation and foreign competition which resulted in unemployment and reduced earnings. 21 In 1685, a royal minister wrote this was �the most miserable state� of the area where people were dying from hunger. Women begged from door to door �because the work of their hands could not sustain them, and other women retired into their houses without having clothing to even attend mass.� (Perry, 21).

6. Economic Need of Prostitution The economic decline in the seventeenth century directly hit abandoned wives and daughters and single mothers. 151 The declining marriage rates began to disturb those who saw that the lower wages offered to women meant that those without husbands could not support themselves with just their own labor. 16-17 Poverty was now seen as a social problem, yet people began to make the distinction between immoral women who were willfully promiscuous and those who lost their virtue as a consequence of poverty. 49 Soon there was a close relationship drawn between poverty, lack of supervision for females, and their loss of virtue. 53 Later in the century economic essayists warned that failure to marry had resulted in many impoverished women. Charitable appeals emphasized the need to protect the poor women as victims of circumstances and recognized these women were exceptionally vulnerable to exploitation and the loss of virtue. 146

7. Economic Need of Prostitution Now it was established that poverty and prostitution went hand in hand. Prostitutes were seen as victims of circumstances and their vulnerability to sin increasing with their economic situation meaning the more poor they were the more likely they were to prostitute. Clerks portrayed prostitutes as sinners to redeem, rather than necessary evils. 146 With the French competition underselling local silk weavers, Cadiz replacing Seville as primary port for transatlantic shipping. While prices rose while real wages fell, women found prostitution one of the few ways that they could earn money. 151

8. Economic Need of Prostitution Beyond women attempting to survive by prostituting to make money, the chapels, hospitals, churches, and other religious foundations began to make money and income from the brothel property where prostitutes worked. 149 The brothels began to lose support and soon the preachers and pious laymen had effectively closed the city brothels in the 1620, which meant the income to the churches, hospitals, and chapels also ceased. 149 By1621, however, the city government decided to support the brothel padres and approved new regulations for the brothels to abide, which began to give money back to the many factors which depended on the income from the brothels to effectively operate. But by 1623, Philip IV formally prohibited brothels in all of his kingdom. 149-150

9. Economic Need of Prostitution Prostitutes did not disappear by the closing of the brothels, for their economic situation had not improved. These women were forced to work on the streets without supervision becoming susceptible to disease to support themselves and their children. 150 Women who sold themselves on the streets of Seville chose to do so not out of female perversity, but out of necessity. 151 These women transformed their governing ethos from male honor to human survival, and they broadened the sexual economy from brothel to streets. 151 *Perry, Mary Elizabeth. Gender and Disorder in Early Modern Seville. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1990.

10. Regulation of Brothels The brothel, to medieval society was the locus of evil. Europe recognized the social value of prostitution but tried to keep it as unobtrusive as possible, placing it under strict control without abolishing it totally. In many parts of Medieval and early modern Europe this meant establishing licensed, or even municipally owned brothels or official red-light districts. The philosophy behind the official establishment and regulation of brothels in France and Germany, followed church doctrine in treating prostitutes as degraded and dishonored but tolerated their activity because of male demand. European towns that licensed or sponsored brothels did so not for the protection of the prostitutes but for the maintenance of social order. Regulated brothels included in Florence, Seville, Dijon, Augsburg and the towns of Languedoc in the medieval and early modern periods agreed that regulated brothels were seen as a foundation of the social order, preventing homosexuality, rape and seduction.

11. Regulation of Brothels Also, brothels were considered important sources of income for the town itself or in the case of licensed brothels, for wealthy individuals or institutions within the town. ????Prostitutes were required to wear some sort of distinguishing clothing and forbidden to wear certain types of garments or jewelry. ????In many places they were forbidden to attend church with or speak to respectable women. Men wanted to protect bourgeois wives by labeling prostitutes and restricting them to brothels. ????Regulations generally gave the brothel keepers a great deal of control over the prostitutes. ????Prostitutes paid the brothel keeper for room and board, not according to the number of the customers they had, but in Germany the payments from the prostitutes might vary according to their income.

12. Regulations of Brothels Some regulations specifically authorized the brothel keeper to imprison a woman for debts she owed him. When she had no customers, the prostitute might also have to perform other work for the profit of the brothel keeper. In most cases the prostitutes were required to live in the brothel and usually had to board there too. In some towns the regulations protected the prostitutes from physical abuse, but in others, particularly in Italy, the brothel keepers were allowed to strike the prostitutes. Regulations from municipal brothels in Languedoc and in Germany provide that the houses should not be open for business on holy days or that the women should all leave the brothel during the holy week. Some towns had restrictions on who could visit the brothels- no clerics, no married men, no Jews ( not well enforced).

13. Regulation of Brothels - Officially regulated or municipally owned brothels in many continental towns took away the prostitutes mobility and their ability to set their own working conditions, restricted their right to leave the profession. Yet, they provided a roof over their head and reduced the need for them to seek out their own customers. *Source: �The Regulation of Brothels in Later Medieval England� By: Ruth Mazo Karras, Database: JSTOR pgs. 399-433 University of Chicago Press Year: 2000 Volume: 14

14. Prostitute Regulations Many prostitutes in Early Modern Europe did not have a choice whether or not be be in the sinful practice. "Many women were not able to marry--because of the lack of dowries, because of sex ratios, because too few men were in a position to marry." And to add to this, the workforce had very little room for women. Prostitution was legal in towns. Authorities all over Europe saw the social value of prostitution but tried to keep it "unobtrusive as possible, placing it under strict control without abolishing it totally." Many people had to get licenses or municipally own brothels. Sometimes these brothels would even form into a "red-light district."

15. Prostitute Regulations The creation of these brothels help maintain social order by eliminating rape, homosexuality, and seduction. The reasoning behind the regulation of prostitution in Early Modern Europe was to view the prostitutes as degrading to society, yet needed because of the male demand. Although the regulations on prostitution varied across Europe, most cities had a designated area for prostitutes. You could tell a person was a prostitute by the distinguishing clothing which made them stand out. The regulations however, were not necessarily all bad. Some laws may seem harsh, but it is for the sole protection of the prostitutes themselves. One interesting fact is that some money generated from prostitution went to the church. And the church also demanded that the brothels should be evacuated during Holy Week, and that they should not be open during holy days.

16. Prostitute Regulations The regulations of Early Modern Europe also included who could visit the brothels and who could not. Most towns had restrictions that excluded married men, clerics, or Jews from engaging with their prostitutes. In the towns where prostitution was prohibited, local officials were the authoritative figure who patrolled the cities. They had their own court systems (secular and ecclesiastical) with fines and punishments. Discovered brothels were fined on a regular basis and would just continue fining until the brothel keepers would cease their actions. The Regulation of Brothels in Early Modern Europe Ruth Mazo Karras Signs, Vol. 14, No. 2, Working Together in the Middle Ages: Perspectives on Women's Communities. (Winter, 1989), pp. 399-433. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0097-9740%28198924%2914%3A2%3C399%3ATROBIL%3E2.0.C

17. Veronica Franco(1546-1591) �The Honest Courtesan�

18. Background on Becoming a Courtesan Venice�s women could be one of two things: a wife who lead a sheltered and constricting life or an independent women And becoming an independent woman meant the only way for survival was prostitution. A women who was in this line of work had the ability to become educated as well as acquire a fortune.

19. Being a Courtesan The Courtesan was the highest level a prostitute could achieve. A women of this caliber had to be able to hold the attention of her clients both sexually and intellectually The best would be taken on by full time patrons, and the very best would engage in �honest� activities with these patrons This ultimately moved these women up in class and in social standing

20. Veronica Franco�s Life Daughter of a former courtesan, Paola Fracassa Married at an early age to Paolo Panizza, a doctor, in an arranged marriage in the early 1560�s Franco separated from him soon after, through that she became a courtesan She bore six children from different men, but only three survived beyond infancy For most of her life she supported herself and a large household of children, tutors and servants

21. �continued She excelled immensely at her profession Veronica became allies with very powerful men Her intellectual life began with sharing her brothers� education by private tutors She became involved in the 1570�s with Domenico Venier�s renowned literary salon in Venice Venier allowed her to become an honest courtesan and eventually an honest women by funding her creative achievement

22. Franco�s Literary Achievements From 1570 to 1580 Franco created and published poetic works as well as a collection of letters 1575-published the Terze Rime, a volume of poems (represented and transformed her life as a courtesan) 1580-published her fifty Familiar Letters in Venice (the letters show her in a range of daily activities-playing music, sitting for a portrait, making dinner for friends, engaging in literary projects)

23. Wealth Veronica�s published works eventually made her wealthy This allowed her to give up the life of a courtesan She achieved a level of fame and social standing that few ladies ever have After she gained her wealth she built a halfway house for courtesans and their children

24. Later in Life In 1575 the plague hit Venice and Franco escaped the city for two years During this time her possessions were stolen from her home in Venice 1580-She was brought to court facing acquisitions of witchcraft Even though the charges were dropped her reputation was ruined She died sometime in 1591

25. �Women have not yet realized the cowardice that resides, for if they should decide to do so, they would be able to fight you until death; and to prove that I speak the truth, amongst so many women, I will be the first to act, setting an example for them to follow.� -Veronica Franco